Mobile phone users can make donations by texting a keyword to a specific SMS short code.
Donation amounts are predetermined, commonly at $5 or $10, and users often have a limit of how many micro-donations they can send via sms to a single campaign in one month.
[3] In South Africa, Nelson Mandela's charity raised $85,000 USD in July 2008 with the cooperation of Zain, a South African mobile operator, using Mandela's 90th birthday as the 'call to give'; well-wishers from around the world could text in a birthday wish and make a donation at the same time.
[4] The hitherto most successful mobile donating campaign has been organized in support of the relief efforts for the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The American Red Cross has raised over $32 million within one month after the disaster, and has demonstrated the unprecedented potential for small text-message donations.